My Instinct Was to Say No
Air Date: June 29, 2020
Episode Notes
#14 My Instinct was to Say No
June 29, 2020
Reminder: Please send us your feedback by taking our short listener survey by July 6.
0:00 Interview with Sue Ferguson, Associate Professor Emeritus, Digital Media and Journalism & Youth and Children Studies.
- New book Women and Work: Feminism, Labour, and Social Reproduction by Susan Ferguson
11:50 Interview with Melissa Weaver, Academic Program Administrator, Faculty of Social Work
20:55 Interview with Tarah Brookfield, Associate Professor, History & Youth and Children Studies
To learn more about our host, Associate Professor Bruce Gillespie, Program Coordinator of Digital Media and Journalism.
Thank you to Melissa Weaver for One Market graphics and Nicole Morgan for campus promotion. Music by Scott Holmes.
Transcript
Bruce Gillespie 0:04
Welcome to One Market, keeping the Laurier Brantford community connected. I’m Bruce Gillespie. This is Episode 14, the final episode of our first season. This week, we hear from a professor who recently made the trip from Houston, Texas, back home to Ontario by car, traveling through America in the middle of a pandemic. Then, we hear from two of the people behind the scenes who helped make this show each week, as we look back on our first season, and anticipate the second. All that and more coming up on this episode of One Market.
Our first guest is Sue Ferguson. Sue is a longtime faculty member in Digital Media and Journalism and Youth and Children’s Studies. She retired one year ago, so we thought it’d be a great opportunity to check in with her because she’s been busy. Hi, Sue, and thanks for joining us today on One Market.
Sue Ferguson 1:02
Hi, Bruce, really, really happy to be here.
Bruce Gillespie 1:06
So, one of the first things we want to ask you about was, now that you’re retired, you’re spending your academic year in Houston, Texas, and your summers in Ontario. So, you recently made the journey back through pandemic America, you go from Houston to Toronto, so weird from the last couple of weeks. So, we’re sort of wondering a) how that’s possible? And b) what it was like?
Sue Ferguson 1:28
Well, we’ve done that car trip a few times, we want to take the car instead of flying, so that we have a car while we’re in Toronto, in Ontario. And also, well, yeah, I mean, that’s the main reason. Also, we have a lot of things to bring up with us. We have all of David’s golf stuff. And we’ve got loads and loads of books that we bring with us back and forth. And we have my son’s baseball gear often. So, we’ve got a lot of things to travel with. So, we take the car, and we’ve done it a few times, this time though, we did it also because we thought it was safer than flying. And yeah, it took us, I mean, we stopped in Minneapolis, sadly on the day that George Floyd was killed. But, we were going there, so my son could check out a college in Minneapolis and talk to the coaches there. And so, that made our trip longer than usual, so it took us I, think, five days to do it. Normally, we can do it in three.
Bruce Gillespie 2:36
So, what was it like along the way?
Sue Ferguson 2:42
It was interesting, you know, we were, of course, very interested to see how the different states and different small and larger communities were dealing with the pandemic. And for the most part, it was pretty good, like the hotels all had, you know, policies in place, where, you know, you either were separated by plexiglas or by, you know, some of them just put a table in front of their counter, but you know, they’re welcoming counter, so that you couldn’t get any closer. And they’d hand you your room key on a tray in a couple plays. You know, they had blocked off, you couldn’t sit in any common areas, and they didn’t have any food, which was a bit of a drag, but we were pretty accomplished at bringing a lot of our own food on these trips. So, that was okay, some of the rest station stops on the way were a little less okay. Before we even left Texas we were at one rest stop there, and I swear, you know, 85% of the people in, It was a very busy kind of rest stop, it’s a very popular place called Buc-ees, in Texas. And they, 85% of the people there were not wearing masks. And, you know, I don’t even think, I can’t remember now, if maybe the staff was masked or not. But, it got better as we got further North. And, you know, it was fine. We stopped very little, we interacted as little as possible with other people. And, you know, we felt pretty safe. And we had lots of hand sanitizer with us. And we’ve always wore our masks in public, so…
Bruce Gillespie 4:26
That’s what I was thinking because, I mean, it seems from what I’m reading on the news at least, that there’s a wide difference between states and regions across the whole country about how they’re dealing, and the kinds of cautions they’re taking. So, you must have seen the full range.
Sue Ferguson 4:42
Yeah, yeah. Like, even within Texas, it’s very different because we’re in Houston, and Houston was pretty much like Toronto in terms of the guidelines. They actually, I think, shut down the schools a day earlier than Toronto and that was all done by the county judge who, kind of, makes those decisions. But, the trouble in Texas is that the county judge gets overruled by the governor, and the governor who is a Republican, and it was not having much of this. You know, he was sort of happy to let the the judges, the, you know, bigger cities sort of lead the way in the early going, but then he stepped in. And, Governor Abbott, and he overruled them and basically undermined their efforts. So, we had, like, for instance, a hairdresser who had opened against, sort of, illegally, and he, you know, was there to celebrate this hairdresser, you know. So, anyway, there are lots of contradictory things going on.
That’s that urban-rural divide, like, that was part of that. And now, of course, they opened up too early. And now, of course, Houston in particular, I think, is also doing very badly right now with the virus. But, yeah, and then, you know, you’re on the road, you’re on the highway, so you don’t see a whole lot. But, going through, where did we go? We went through Kansas, and I forget and get it mixed up. But, Kansas, a bit of Indiana, I think, and Missouri. And you know, those stops there were, I didn’t, yeah, I wasn’t particularly alarmed at what I saw.
Bruce Gillespie 6:27
So, what was it like at the border?
Sue Ferguson 6:30
Oh, the border was interesting. So, you know, I’m never, I’m always nervous at the border, I don’t know why. Just authority or something leaning down on me. But, the border guard, you know, kept us there for about 15-20 minutes. We had been told already from friends who had passed through a few weeks prior that we needed to give them a map of where we’re going, we needed to prove that we had a full tank of gas in the car. And that, you know, we’d give them our phone number. So, we did all that, we had all that prepped. And I had written up the address that we’re staying at our cottage for the two week quarantine. I’d written out the address of the cottage and at the border, he’s like, you know, of course, they’re all very serious. And we’re talking to them and he questions us about everything. He’s taking his time looking at everything really carefully, which is good, you know, because you want people to be careful coming through. And then he says, “And what’s your postal code of the cottage?” And I’m like, “I don’t know my postal code. We don’t get any mail here.” So, I quick try and look at my phone and look it up on my phone. But, because we’re transferring from the U.S. to Canada, and we’re with AT&T in the U.S., you know, and whatever the roaming stuff is it wasn’t responding, none of our phones were working very well. So, then I phone my sister who looks it up for me, and we do that. So, there was sort of that delay, and then at the end, he handed us all a piece of paper, the three of us. And we had to recite out loud that we understood and would comply by the quarantine rules, and understood this, you know, that there were penalties for not doing so. And yeah, and that we were going directly to the place where we’re going to, you know, so we did that. And so, once we’re through we sighed a big sigh of relief, and carried on and, you know, got to the cottage and and pretty good time, actually. So, that was good.
Bruce Gillespie 8:33
Well we’re glad to hear you made it back to Canada safe and sound.
Sue Ferguson 8:36
Yes, yes. We’re glad to be here.
Bruce Gillespie 8:40
The other thing I wanted to ask you about was, since you retired officially last year, when you retired you said one of the things you wanted to do more book work. And, of course, in the past year, you’ve actually published a book. So, tell us a little bit about that.
Sue Ferguson 8:52
Great, okay, thanks. So, yes, I’ve published a book called “Women and Work” and it’s with Pluto, and it came out last November. And yeah, it’s a book about feminist theories of labor. And it goes back and looks, you know, starts in the 15th century, something pre capitalist, kind of, feminist discussions and moves very quickly through a lot of history by, sort of, cherry picking people that I’m interested in, and people who I think have kind of shifted and introduce new concepts to how feminists have thought about women’s work over the centuries. And then, there’s that’s, sort of, the first half of the book, and the second half of the book takes a look at different strands of social reproduction theory and the debates between them. So, yeah, it’s very great to have it done. It was fun to work on. I really, like, it was a book that I, sort of, knew what I wanted to say from the beginning, which is very unusual for me when I sit down to write anything. So, it went too easily in that sense. And yeah, it’s done well, I’ve had, like, in terms of just, I’ve had great feedback from people, and that’s really, really gratifying. People who have read it have let me know that they really appreciate it. And it’s going to be translated into both, so far, into both Portuguese and Spanish. So, that’s exciting.
Bruce Gillespie 10:25
That’s great. I mean, that must be the most productive first year retirement you could possibly have, write and finish a book in twelve months.
Sue Ferguson 10:32
It makes a big difference not to be teaching. As I’m sure you can appreciate, and not to have as much committee, well any committee work in essence. So, yes, it was good. And, you know, it was, yeah, I was kind of all fired up and ready to do it then. I’m having more trouble since it’s been published to try to get into, you know, really into a deeper other project. I’ve written a couple smaller articles. But, I haven’t gotten back to another book project I want to do, just because that feels more daunting now. And I’ve lost a bit of momentum, I think.
Bruce Gillespie 11:10
Well, here’s hoping that year two of your retirement can be just as productive, and that you have a nice summer at your cottage.
Sue Ferguson 11:15
Thank you very much.
Bruce Gillespie 11:17
Thanks for joining us today, Sue. It’s been great to talk to you.
Sue Ferguson 11:19
Thanks, Bruce. I really appreciate it. I think this is great what you’re doing. So, I’m really happy to be part of it. Thank you.
Bruce Gillespie 11:26
Our next guest is Melissa Weaver, who’s name should be familiar to you because we thank her each week for designing our amazing logo and graphics. In addition to her work for One Market, Melissa is an academic program assistant in the Bachelor of Social Work program. I started by asking her what it’s been like to work at home for almost four months.
Melissa Weaver 11:47
Yeah, that’s a really good question. It’s been definitely an adjustment to work from home, especially working for the Bachelor of Social Work Program. We’re very small on the Brantford campus, and we’re very connected. So, to not see each other all the time, and then as well, just being part of the Brantford campus. It’s also very connected and to not just be able to run into people, or go to people to have a quick conversation in the hallway, that’s been very different. As far as my job as a whole, it was kind of an adjustment during the tech piece, making sure I had the proper desk, the proper chair, my monitor set up, all of that kind of thing. But, that’s been quite smooth. We’ve really as a team, we’ve integrated using Teams, Microsoft Teams, and we have like bi weekly meetings, then weekly program meetings, just to keep everyone up to date, and also to check in on each other. So, that’s been really helpful in the adjustment piece.
Bruce Gillespie 12:48
It just occurred to me that APAs must be the new sort of technical experts, right? The people you go to in your departments, like, “How do I make Zoom work? I’m having a problem with Teams.” Like, you must have had to do a lot more, sort of, learning on the tech side than the rest of us have had to do because you were the person we would call if we had a problem.
Tarah Brookfield 13:05
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I’ve jokingly been nicknamed the IT person when I worked in FLA, because I’m decent enough at figuring out tech things and I really like doing the creative side of making graphics, etc. So, yeah, I’ve definitely had to make my own little manuals, or seek out the ones that ICT has made for us and send them. Bob is the Associate Dean and we work closely together, and typically, we have to, kind of, figure out what platform makes the most sense for our conversations. If Zoom is necessary, or if we can just do, like, a quick phone call. But, definitely helping a lot of folks out, helping a lot of students out as well. We’ve been hosting student check ins, because Laurier got a Zoom account for the whole university, I have to make sure that all of those students are using the proper channels to access Zoom.
Bruce Gillespie 14:01
Oh.
Melissa Weaver 14:01
So, yeah, just making sure that I have all of my little resources tucked away and I can pull them out when I get a panicked email, “I can’t get into this meeting help me!”
Bruce Gillespie 14:11
Anybody who knows you, knows that you’ve got a manual for everything. So, that’s good.
Melissa Weaver 14:16
Yeah, it’s a it’s a lot easier to write things down.
Bruce Gillespie 14:20
You also mentioned that, that you you like being creative, sort of working on graphics, which is, of course, why you’ve been part of the One Market team from day one, because when Tarah and I started thinking about this, many, many months ago, 14 episodes ago, we knew we wanted a logo, we wanted to look nice and, sort of, have some standardized graphics and images we could use on Facebook and Twitter. And you were the person who we went to because we, having had worked with you as an APA in both our programs before, we knew that you were really good and quick with coming up with really good graphics. So, are you trained in that or is that just something you’ve learned on your own?
Melissa Weaver 14:54
Well, first, I was really honored to be able to make the graphics for One Market. I loved the podcast idea from the get go, and I’m really happy that I’ve been able to be a part of it every week making the graphics. So, I guess as a student, I was always involved in a lot of clubs. I think specifically, in my fourth-year when I was a LOCUS Don, we did a lot of programming, and Jess Calberry actually did like a workshop on how to use Canva. And that’s the program that I typically use, you can get like a free membership to it. It’s very intuitive, in my opinion, and that’s usually what I use. It’s also nice that they have templates. So, if you need an Instagram post right away, they have the specs all there for you to use. And I just really liked that creative piece, and we recently launched our BSW Instagram page, @laurierbsw. And so, I’m really getting to use my creative side in my new role, which I really appreciate because I love the creatives. And I also really love working with social media.
Bruce Gillespie 15:57
Now, speaking of creative, I know that you’ve spent a good portion of your time at home working on your home because you recently moved into a new house.
Tarah Brookfield 16:05
Yeah, yeah, my partner and I bought our very first home in August 2019. And it has been a whirlwind of a year to have to be a new homeowner. Lots of new things. But, I think with COVID we’re really getting to enjoy and experience our house and everything it has to offer because we’re home so frequently.
Bruce Gillespie 16:30
Mhmm.
Melissa Weaver 16:30
But yes, with the nice weather we have been working a lot on the outside of our house. So, when we got possession of the house, there was actually an above ground pool that we really loved when we looked at the house and then, kind of, realized that it’s a lot of work to take care of a pool, especially above ground. And there’s a lot of trees around where the pool was situated and it was just creating a lot of mess. So, we took down the pool, and so this weekend, we got rid of the, I like to call it a dirt pit, that the pool had left behind. And yeah, so we raked that all out and we laid soil, and then we laid sod on Sunday, we did 92 rolls of sod.
Bruce Gillespie 17:17
Wow.
Melissa Weaver 17:18
Which is quite crazy. And yeah, we’ve also been working on the front of our house, there’s a garden, and I’m not much of a gardener, but.
Bruce Gillespie 17:27
Yet.
Melissa Weaver 17:28
Not yet. But, it really does improve the look of the house, especially from the street. So, yeah, my partner and I’ve been working on it and his parents live around the corner, and they’ve been amazing help to both of us.
Bruce Gillespie 17:40
I think that’s such an interesting point that because we’ve been at home so much, which is really unusual. Normally, you’d be gone eight hours a day, I think it’s really given a lot of us a sense of how we want to be comfortable at home and how we need to rearrange the space, whether that’s indoors or outdoors, or what you need to do to be more comfortable there. Because otherwise you buy a new house, you’re at work eight hours a day, you, sort of, come home and you’re trying to do all this stuff in the wee hours of the night or on the weekends only. So, it must be nice to have that time to actually be in the space and figure out how you want to use it.
Melissa Weaver 18:12
Yeah, it’s been it’s been really nice that way. It’s been nice to set up, we always knew that we would have a room for an office just because I really like to organize. So, I needed to have a filing cabinet for our home stuff, so we’ve gotten to really make our room and our spaces our own. But, it’s an interesting point you bring up about making it kind of as usable as possible. My partner’s now back to work, he works in refrigeration, and he’s been on nights since he’s been back for the last about two or three weeks. And so, we’ve actually kind of moved our clothes around, so that I can get dressed in a separate room while he’s sleeping and he has his own space to get, like, ready for bed when he comes home from work, so we’re not disturb each other in that way as well. Just because of the shift work.
Bruce Gillespie 19:02
Yeah.
Melissa Weaver 19:02
But, yeah, really working on our home, really thinking about what we want our home to look like, and also keeping in mind how to make it pet friendly because we got a puppy.
Bruce Gillespie 19:15
So, on top of all this you’re puppy training?
Melissa Weaver 19:17
Yes, yes, we are. We got, her name is Ellie. We got her on Boxing Day. She is in Australian shepherd-golden lab mix. She’s eight months old in a week, I think, which is crazy to me because I’ve been telling people she’s six months for the last like, I don’t know, three months apparently.
Bruce Gillespie 19:37
But, even crazier because she’s giant already.
Tarah Brookfield 19:40
Yeah, she’s about 50 pounds. She’s just, like, the sweetest, most lovable thing and being home with her has been really nice. Like, I feel like her and I have such a close bond because we’re home and we’re together all the time. And she’s really adjusted to me being home, but then also me working and not being able to play with her, even though she desperately wants to and will bring me every toy she has to play. But yeah, so that’s also been an adjustment and I think it’s something that I’m really going to miss when I do go back to work in person. Whenever that is, however that may be. It’s just so nice to have her there when you have a stressful day and you can just, kind of like, reach down and pet her, or take a quick break and play some fetch just to get your mind off of things.
Bruce Gillespie 20:30
Well, Melissa, it sounds like you’ve got lots on your plate. Thank you for taking on all the One Market graphics that you’ve done all season long. We look forward to working with you again on Season Two, coming later this summer.
Melissa Weaver 20:40
Thanks, Bruce, I can’t wait.
Bruce Gillespie 20:44
Our final guest is none other than my partner in podcasting, the co-creator and co-producer of One Market, Tarah Brookfield, I wanted to talk to her about an interesting research project she’s working on this summer, and check in at the end of our first season. Here’s our conversation.
Hi, Tarah, and thanks for joining us today on One Market. I mean, you’re always here in the background. But, thank you for joining us, you know in person today on One Market.
Tarah Brookfield 21:09
Well, thank you. I figured after forcing other people to do it, I needed to do it too.
Bruce Gillespie 21:14
And I should say right off the bat, we’ve had lots of people ask where you have been. And so, my response is always Tarah’s always here, I bug her like 10,000 times a day with questions. So, you’ve always been here in the background, and we thought about getting you on early on. But, because this was an experiment, we didn’t know if people would be canceling on us at the last minute, or how easy or difficult it would be to find guests. So, throughout the first season, Tarah has been sort of waiting in the wings as our emergency guest if we need to fill space. And fortunately, we’ve never had to fill space, we’ve never had anyone change their mind or cancel. So, this is why you’re only appearing with us now on the final episode of our first season.
Tarah Brookfield 21:51
Well, that feels fitting.
Bruce Gillespie 21:53
I think so too. So, before we talk on podcast stuff, you’re working on a really interesting pandemic related research project this summer with some students that I was hoping you would tell us about because interestingly, it’s not about this pandemic.
Tarah Brookfield 22:07
Right. And I should say, it was actually the podcast that inspired me to do this. Early on in the season, we had Tyler Britz come on, he was our first student guest. He’s a third-year History student. One of the things that he mentioned in his interview was that he couldn’t find any history related summer work, and I thought that’s really too bad, with museums and archives and libraries closed, the summer would be a good opportunity to gather work experience. So, the members of History program and I chatted about, could we create some sort of work experience? Could we ask for funding? And at the same time, I thought, well, we already have the Research Apprenticeship Program at Laurier, which is funded by a donor that gives students $1,000 scholarship to fund their research. So, I thought, could I put together a team of students who could apply to be research apprentices, get some money and get some training? And then, it was actually Geoff Spurr who suggested doing something related to polio, knowing my background in the history of childhood. So, what we decided to do was, I decided to create a four person Research Apprenticeship Program, drawing on students from Youth and Children’s Studies and History, to study the connections, or the similarities and differences between the polio epidemics of the 1930s and 1950s, prior to the vaccine for polio ending that. And we would do interviews with older adults who lived through that period in their childhood, but are now also living through COVID-19 and experiencing perhaps similar or different types of health risks, quarantine, social distancing, and that.
So, I asked Tyler to be involved, because he was one who inspired that, as well as,
Bruce Gillespie 23:48
That’s great, I didn’t realize that.
Tarah Brookfield 23:49
And then, one of our other student guests, Delores Maas, who you interviewed, she was the Youth and Children’s Studies and Indigenous Studies student who was doing research with a McMaster professor, so I know she was experienced in that type of work, and I had taught her before and knew she did oral history interviews for my class. And then, we threw together two more students, now we’re a team of four, and it’s gone really well so far. What we decided to do since the students are coming from different backgrounds and expertise, we would first just start familiarizing ourselves with medical history. So, the first assignment students had to do was an annotated bibliography where they needed to find each resource related to medical history, the history of childhood and the time period that we’re looking at, specifically, polio studies, as well. We’re focusing our study on Brantford, Brant County, and Six Nations. So, they also have to do research on the region in this time period. And then, they also did research on oral history as a methodology.
Bruce Gillespie 24:49
Right.
Tarah Brookfield 24:49
So, they each gather their findings from those sources, and then did sort of a summary of their key findings. And they came up with some really interesting things that they’ve already noticed in addition to just living through the pandemic themselves. So, for example, they noticed that very similar tactics were used, not only in polio, but in previous epidemics related to hygiene, social distancing, contact tracing, hand washing being emphasized from the late 19th century on, for example. They also noticed that in most cases, socioeconomic status determines who’s more susceptible. Although with polio, it’s a little bit different since, there’s a little bit of irony with polio, because polio has existed, we know, like, back from ancient Egypt times. Like, it’s an old illness, but it didn’t really flare up into epidemic status until the late 19th century. And it was hitting people in all different backgrounds, including wealthy and sort of upper middle class. And when scientists began to understand what were the causes, they actually realized that people probably had an immunity to polio built up from poor hygiene habits. That by not having access to clean water, for example, or contaminated food in the past gave people more immunity. But, the turn of the century, there was a lot more public health awareness about clean water, clean milk, having safe food, that people lost their immunity, and therefore, it was affecting everyone, even people in the cleanest, people who had access to, like, the cleanest households, or not crowded housing, for example.
So, that’s a little bit different from our current situation. So, they’re noticing a lot of really interesting things, panics about vaccines, issues of religion, and morality, and science. And I think they’re having an interesting time comparing the sort of living history with the past.
Bruce Gillespie 26:45
Yeah, what a great experience.
Tarah Brookfield 26:47
So, our next step is to do research ethics. So, the students are learning about what’s required at the university level to get approved to do research with human participants. And so, that’s their next step to go through building the application, which would go first to the Undergraduate Research Ethics Committee at the Brantford campus. And then, because we’d like to interview residents from Six Nations who could also go through the process to get approval from Six Nations. So, probably most of July will be our focus on on getting those documents right, figuring out all those details, and then we’ll actually get to start the interviews, hopefully, between August and October.
Bruce Gillespie 27:27
That’s great. I cannot wait to hear how this goes. Again, it seems like such a smart and timely project. And as you said, like, a great way to give students some some really valuable research experience at a time when a lot of research is hard to do, and jobs are harder to find.
Tarah Brookfield 27:40
Oh, and the exciting thing is they’re not just writing a paper at the end, which I’m sure they’re all delighted about. They’re going to create a digital exhibit.
Bruce Gillespie 27:47
Mmm.
Tarah Brookfield 27:48
Which will have sound clips from the interview if the participants give their permission for that. Primary sources, like photos and images from medical records and newspapers. And so, it’ll be something, they’ll have that technological skills, that exhibit building skills that they could also put on their CVs.
Bruce Gillespie 28:04
I love it. That’s amazing. Good for you. I cannot I cannot wait to hear further updates about this project.
Tarah Brookfield 28:09
Me too.
Bruce Gillespie 28:10
So, let’s change tracks a bit. I thought we could take a few minutes and just talk about our experience of doing this podcast because this is our last episode of the season. We’re taking a bit of a break until the end of summer. How has this been for you? And, I mean, I should first of all, thank you for joining on this wild project with me that, sort of, came out of nowhere, and came together very quickly when you had tons of other things on the go. So, what’s it been like?
Tarah Brookfield 28:35
Well, when you first asked if I was interested, my instinct was to say no, not that I wasn’t interested. But that was back in,
Bruce Gillespie 28:43
I think that’s a smart instinct.
Tarah Brookfield 28:44
That was back in March when I was feeling so overwhelmed with the world, work, family responsibilities. But, I thought why let this opportunity go because the reason you wanted to start the podcast, to stay in contact with with the community, is something that I knew I would need. So, this gave me an excuse to be involved, and to be able to connect to people behind the scenes even before I got to hear their lovely interviews. So, I’m really glad you asked, and having this project has been delightful, really. And it gave me something to look forward to and learn some new skills involving, for example, one of the things that I did was the social media side of things, and I’m still not great at it, but I was never really on Instagram before. And now, I really like it. So, I’ve learned some some new skills, but most importantly, it was getting to hear everyone’s voices and connect with our colleagues and meet new people, too.
Bruce Gillespie 29:40
I agree. And I think this was one of the best outcomes for me was that, I mean, certainly a lot of the people we spoke to are people I know fairly well in a professional kind of sense. But, a lot of them weren’t, they were, you know, we had lots of students that I’d never met before, never taught before. We had lots of staff members that I might have known by name on emails, but weren’t people I’d had any reason to talk to before. I am just overblown with how many smart, interesting, thoughtful people we have in our community. And I’m glad that they all said yes, that they would talk to us, and make time for us, and share their stories and experiences. It’s just, I knew we had a strong, diverse, interesting community before we did this project, but I feel even more strongly about that now. It’s just the range of people, and the kind of work and interests they have on this campusis just, really just mind blowing.
Tarah Brookfield 30:34
I guess, to draw upon what Kawennakon said in her episode, like, the silver lining of this often awful experience about living through the pandemic was getting to hear the voices of my colleagues, and learn those things, and feel like they were close by, and be inspired particularly by the students’ resilience, or some of our staff members who are operating under very difficult circumstances. Or, someone like Trish McLaren, who went from the winter term right into spring teaching.
Bruce Gillespie 31:01
Yes.
Tarah Brookfield 31:01
People are, they’re rising to the occasion, which doesn’t surprise me because it’s a campus that has risen to the occasion a lot of the time. But, not only were they doing that, they’re generous enough to take time off to speak to us too.
Bruce Gillespie 31:17
Yeah, and I think for lots of folks who aren’t used to speaking publicly in this kind of forum, that’s not an easy ask. And again, we recognize that from the outset, which is why, as we said earlier, we kept you in the wings is our emergency, you knowm, break in case of emergency guest, because I fully expected to have more people say, “Oh, no, I would never do this. Absolutely not. This sounds too nerve wracking.” But, the vast majority of people agreed, and were really generous with, again, the stories they shared about their lives and their experiences. And I find that really heartwarming. And I think the other thing I’m taking away from this is that it is possible to remain connected in a remote and digital way. I mean, I think we’ve seen different ways that this happens on a broader scale, Facebook, Twitter, whatever. And you could argue those really don’t make you feel more connected to people. But, I think in this case, it’s um, it’s really made me feel much more optimistic and positive about the role this kind of technology can play in keeping already small, connected communities together when we can’t actually be together physically.
Tarah Brookfield 32:22
Absolutely. Although, it will be quite exciting when we can all be back on campus and have those hallway conversations and just see your faces along with the voices. But, in the meantime, this is a good stop gap measure.
Bruce Gillespie 32:34
I agree. And certainly, we’ve had lots of folks ask, you know, “Will this be continuing, you know, into the fall?” Absolutely, because all of our classes at Laurier Brantford will be happening remotely. So, the vast majority of folks around us will be working and studying remotely. But, I think we’re still looking at ways that, trying to make sure this sticks around, even when things return to, you know, the new normal and whatever that looks like. So, hopefully, when we’re back all in person that this can, this artifact, this forum can still exist in some ways. Certainly another thing we’re thinking about for the fall is when we have more students around even remotely, virtually, getting more students involved. So, I’m really excited for Season Two, we have all sorts of plans in the making. But, certainly, this is also a good chance to remind folks that we have a listener survey on our on our Twitter and our Facebook site, we would love to hear what you have thought about this season and what you liked about it, what we could do differently. So, please take a moment to fill that out if you can. Tarah, do you have any closing thoughts about Season One?
Tarah Brookfield 33:34
Well, I guess, just to add a plug into, some people reached out to us to be interviewed and that was very helpful. And so, please continue to do that over the summer. Tell us about your summer adventures. Maybe just backyard adventures. If you’re not straying far from home, or new projects that came up at work to prepare for the fall. We’d love to have those stories. So, please don’t be shy about reaching out if you feel you’d like to be interviewed. Otherwise, we’ll come looking for you.
Bruce Gillespie 34:01
That’s right. Please don’t expect that just because you haven’t reached out you won’t hear from Tarah. Tarah, it’s been great to chat with you on air for the first time. Thanks for joining us.
Tarah Brookfield 34:12
Oh, my pleasure. Thanks, Bruce.
Bruce Gillespie 34:16
And that’s a wrap. This is the final episode in Season One, as we take a bit of a break to focus on some research, prepare our classes for fall, and start planning Season Two of One Market, which will launch later this summer, just in time for the new school year. And we’d love your feedback. What have you liked about One Market? What would you like to see more of? You can share your thoughts by taking a very short online survey. You can find the link on Twitter or Facebook @onemarketlb. One Market was created and produced by Bruce Gillespie and Tarah Brookfield. Music by Scott Holmes, graphics by Melissa Weaver. Special thanks to Nicole Morgan for helping to spread the word about One Market from the Dean’s Office all season long. And thank you for listening, and all the kind and encouraging messages you’ve sent along in the past 14 weeks. This has been a lot of fun for us, and it’s really helped us feel more connected to our community. We hope it’s done the same thing for you. We look forward to joining you again soon. Until then, keep in touch.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai